LONDON: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain has suspended the party's Karachi Rabita Committee (Coordination Committee) for what he called its members inability to fulfill their responsibilities despite continual assurances, a press release on the MQM's website said. Hussain is hoping to constitute a new coordination committee in Karachi, the positions for which he has invited senior party members to apply.

In the statement that was published on the website on Saturday, Hussain said a decision would be made on the future of the coordination committee in London either today or tomorrow.

The MQM chief has moreover invited senior party officials from different zones and sectors to apply for positions for a new coordination committee that he is hoping to constitute.

He said senior party officials who believe themselves to be capable of taking on the responsibility should submit their information at the party's Nine-Zero headquarters in Azizabad.

Hussain said Kaiful Warah, Abdul Haseeb and Advocate Abdul Arif Khan would continue to be part of the Karachi coordination committee, adding that other committee members who have been dismissed should no longer bother to visit the party's headquarters.

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Late Wednesday night, the MQM leader had directed the closure of all party offices, only to withdraw his decision a few hours later.

Sources in the party had told Dawn that Hussain was “extremely angry” with the coordination committee over certain organisational matters. The anger came out with Hussain phoning members of the committee and directing them to close all offices and hanging up without listening to their responses.

Sources said after Hussain's directive to close the offices, the committee’s members, parliamentarians and other office-bearers immediately stopped work.

They had then converged outside Hussain’s Azizabad residence in a bid to calm him down by extending an apology, following which the party chief changed his mind.

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